Back pay, overtime responsible for increase in state’s $100,000 club

SPRINGFIELD — Nearly 1,600 more state workers collected $100,000 or more from the state in 2013 than topped that figure just a year earlier.

However, the increase could be a short-lived phenomena, according to state agencies where most of the biggest increases in the $100,000 club occurred.

Many of them said that making good on back-wage increases that had been withheld from unionized employees helped drive up the figures.

Agencies that operate state facilities also cited continued overtime expenses.

Figures based on payouts made by the state comptroller’s office showed that in calendar year 2012 some 6,215 employees were paid $100,000 or more. The amounts include any payments to the employees, whether it is base salary, overtime or payments for unused vacation time or other compensation due when a worker retires.

In calendar year 2013, that number grew to 7,800.

The figures do not include payments to university employees. However, they do include state agencies under control of the governor, judges, retirement systems and statewide elected officials like the secretary of state, treasurer, comptroller and attorney general.

Goes back to canceled raise

The biggest increase occurred in the Department of Human Services, which is responsible for operating the state’s mental health facilities as well as administering a wide range of human service programs.

DHS spokeswoman Januari Smith said overtime expenses accounted for some of the increase in $100,000-plus employees.

However, she said, “the large majority of that is due to the payment of back wages to union members. We paid back wages for one full fiscal year and most of another fiscal year. We repaid a lot of that in calendar 2013.”

The issue goes back to July 2011, when Gov. Pat Quinn canceled scheduled pay raises due to about 30,000 state workers at 14 state agencies and commissions. Quinn said the General Assembly did not put money into the budget to honor those contractual wage increases.

Unionized state workers were supposed to receive a pay raise of 2 percent on July 1, 2011. That was to be followed by a 1.25 percent increase on Jan. 1, 2012, and another 2 percent increase on Feb. 1, 2012. Workers in the early stages of their careers also are eligible for step increases beyond across-the-board raises.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents the majority of the workers who didn’t get scheduled raises, took the matter to court and won.

Since then, many workers have been paid, but not all of them. Smith said some workers at Human Services still haven’t received their back wages.

Still, the department employs a large number of physicians and psychiatrists who make six-figure incomes. Of the top 100 payouts on the list, 80 went to people with Human Resources with medical job titles.

Working to reduce overtime

The Department of Corrections saw a significant increase in employees topping six figures in compensation. In 2012, it had 502 workers with $100,000 or more in compensation. A year later, the number grew to 762. Corrections has more than 10,000 employees.

Corrections spokesman Tom Shaer said overtime and paying back wages accounted for the increase.

“The number of employees earning $100,000 or more increased primarily due to the fact that in 2012 all collectively bargained wage rates and COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) increases were ‘frozen’ due to lack of appropriations to fund the collectively bargained pay increases,” Shaer said in a statement. “For 2013, a judge ruled that those wage rates should be ‘unfrozen’ and all previously frozen wage increases should be effectuated. Given that the ‘frozen’ wages encompassed step and COLA increases spanning two fiscal years, the effect of moving to the contractually bargained ‘unfrozen’ wage rates had a substantial impact on overall salaries.”

It also had an impact on overtime costs since the wage freeze meant overtime rates were frozen, he said. AFSCME has long complained that state prisons are understaffed, and Corrections has run up substantial overtime expenses to ensure there is adequate manpower in the prisons. Last fiscal year, the department had $60 million in overtime costs.

Shaer said Corrections is in the process of hiring additional prison guards.

“We’re being pretty aggressive, and we think we’re going to cut that overtime back into the $40-million range next year,” he said.

That should reduce the number of employees collecting more than $100,000 a year, he said, as should a new provision that says employees holding the public service administrator title will no longer be eligible to collect overtime.

Misleading image?

AFSCME said the $100,000 club figures may give a misleading image of state worker compensation.

“The figures in this story are distorted by overtime — an expense made necessary due to severe staff shortages — and by the state’s failure to pay wages earned from 2011 to 2013,” AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said in a statement. “If state government had adequate staff, it could reduce overtime and if wages had been paid in the year earned, they would not distort this data.”

The Department of Public Health also saw a significant jump in workers collecting $100,000 or more. In 2013, the agency had 66 employees in that group. A year later, it jumped to 215.

Public Health spokeswoman Sheila Porter said making good on union raises that were due in 2011 and 2012, as well as meeting a 2 percent raise that was due July 1, 2013, accounted for much of the jump.

“These bargaining unit increases and critical overtime expenditures resulted in an increase from 66 staff members earning salaries of $100,000 or more in 2013 to 215 staff members in 2014,” she said in a statement.

If the union members had received their raises as scheduled, rather than in a lump sum, she said, the increase would have been closer to 150.

The Department of Healthcare and Family Services saw an increase of 56 people pulling in $100,000 or more, raising its total to 214.

“The upsurge was directly because DHFS had union employee salaries frozen in 2012 and 2013,” said spokeswoman Joanne von Alroth.

Not every state agency saw an increase in $100,000-plus payouts. Illinois State Police saw the number drop from 1,052 to 987.

“The decrease in numbers are likely the result of routine attrition, retirements and/or employees who may have just left the agency,” spokeswoman Monique Bond said.